Metal articulated shoe last



March L9, 1935. e. c. CLARK METAL ARTICULATED SHOE LAST Filed Feb. :5, 1954 650 7 C C/ar/r.

BY I

ATTORNEY.

Patented Mar. 19, 1935 e LQQ QSBQ V UNITED sTA'rss -Ara r ce 1,994,569 METAL ARTICULATEDQSHOEF LAST George C. Clark,.Beverl y1 Hills, Calif. Application many a, 1934, Serial No. 709,53

13 Claims. (01) 1 2-136) The invention relates to metal articulated shoe A-further object is to provide an articulated lasts, and particularly to articulated shoe lasts hollow metal shoe last whose hingedly connected comprising hollow toe and heel memberapivotally sections are provided with joint faces which are interconnected and formed of a metal,such as cast againsta chilhwhereby said faces will'be 5 aluminum." 1 finished when cast to provide a'point from which 5 Articulated shoe lastshave, heretofore been the balance of thefinishing work tobe done may largely made of wood, byreason of the difficulty be carried, and whereby said faces, to which the and expense attendant upon attempts to manufriction and wear incident to use of the last is facture the lasts of other material and particularapplied, are hardened. 7

10 ly of metal. Articulated shoe lasts must be made A, further object is toprovide a hollow metal, 10 in a manner whereby the hinged sectionstherearticulated shoe 'last having novel means for of fit precisely to provide the exact desired conhingedly connecting the toe and heel sections tour of the last as a whole. A furtherrequirethereof. i ment is that, for minimum; cost and. facility of A further object is'to provide; an articulated handling, a last, if made. of metal, must lee-hollow, shoe last with novel means for urging the pivotally 15 which thus limits methods of manufacture ,to connected last sections to either of their extremes casting or molding thereof. The casting ofthe of pivotal movement. I a Y last sections or parts, however, requires finishing With theabove and other objects in view, the and polishing thereof it the casting mold :is invention resides in the combination and arformed. of sand, and it will be seen that a rough rangement of parts ashereinafter set forth, shown 2c casting affords no finished portion with respect to lathe-drawing; described and claimed, it being which the remainder :of' the finishing operation understood that changes in the precise embodi-a can be carried on with assurance that'eachof the ment of the invention may be madewithinthe units castwill be of the exact form; necessary. scope of what is claimed without departing from 35 In this respect, it will be obvious that," unless the spirit of the invention. V o

means is provided for exactlypositioning a rough In the-drawing: j casting with respect to the finishingv means, the .--Figure 1' is a 'viewof the last in side elevation. expense and difficulty of making which means, as FigureZ is a "vertical longitudinal sectional View a jig, is great, and the use of which requires painsof the last taken on line 22 of Figure 3.

taking care. in the adjustmentof each individual Figure 3 is a fragmentary perspectiveview of 0 casting, a slight variationof position with respect thetoe. member of the last illustrating the conto the finishing means will: throw the entire last struction of the joint face thereof; out of balance or out of shape, whereby'that last Figure 4 is a fragmentary perspective view of section or member will not properly fit the'com= the heel member ofthe last illustrating the con- 35. plementary last member and will not, in "comstruction of the joint face thereof. bination' with the other last member, produce. the Figure 5 is a fragmentary sectional view simidesired last contour. Another method of castlar to'Figure 2, illustrating the joint parts at ing the last sections would be. to cast them in '2. their opposite extreme of pivotalmovement. metal mold, but this entails great and impracti-i Referring to'the drawing,.which illustrates the 4,0 calexpense by reason of the large number of sizes preferred embodiment of the invention, the. 1111 0 of the lasts, and also by reason of the great variameral 10 designates the last, whichis preferably tion in shapesof lasts required by shoe manuformed of cast hollow metal, such as aluminum, facturers to permit manufacture of shoesrof dif as a whole. The last is formed of a toe member fere'nt styles and shapes, even though the same 11' and a heel member 12, which members are size. Necessarily each different last size; and each pivotally or hingedly connected by. a pintle; 13. 45 different shape for each size, requires an individ- Heel member '12 is provided with a joint face ual metal mold for the casting of each of the two 14, a part of which comprises the faces of the inparts thereof. These and other difliculties have tegrally formed knuckles 15 formed at the oppo prevented commercial development of an articusite sides'of the member and spaced at theirinlated shoe last for the manufacture of leather ner ends, and'between which and in alignment shoes, which is formed of metal. j with which is formed a concave face 16 concentric It. is therefore theprimary object ofthe invenwith said knuckles. Aligned apertures 17 are tion to provide an articulated hollow metal shoe formed centrally in the knuckles 15 for the receplast which may be simplyand cheaply manufaction of the pintle 13. The portions of thejoint tured. r face above'and below the knuckles are relatively angularly disposed, as best shown in Figure 2. Toe member 11 is provided with a joint face 18, a part of which comprises the concave portions or recesses 19, which are adapted to receive the knuckles 15 of the heel member, and the faces of an intermediate knuckle 20 concentric of and aligned with said concavities 19, which knuckle 20 is adapted to fit into the concavity 16 of the heel member. Knuckle 20 has a sleeve 21, preferably formed of steel or other hard metal, mounted centrally therein to form a bearing for the pintle 13. The joint faces of the last parts, being the surfaces to which frictional wear is applied, must be hardened, particularly when the last is made of a comparatively soft metal, such as aluminum, and for this reason and also to facilitate manufacture in the respects set forth above, these joint faces are formed by being cast against a chill. The difficult operation of machining these faces is thus eliminated, and insurance that the last memberswill precisely, and exactly fit together to provide the desired contour of the last isobtained. 1

Integrally formed with the heel member 12in thecasting" operation is a pocket 25 whose mouth opens in'the concave face 16 and the axis of whose bore extends radially ofthe center of the knuckles 15 and substantially parallel with the top face 26 of the heel member. In this bore 25 is disposed a strong coil spring 27 which out- Wardly urges a metal ball 28 into engagement with the knuckle 20 0f thetoe member. An opening 29 isformed in the knuckle 20 of the toe member, the axis of which extends radially of said knuckle and at an angle to the bore of thepocket 25 of the heel member. In this opening 29-ismounted a second metal ball 30 in a. manner whereby'only a small portion thereof projects-beyond'the adjacent face of the knuckle. In'prac tice, the ball 30 has a frictional fit with the opening 29 which is provided by for'mingthe opening 29 of aradius a few thousandthsof an inch less than the radius of the ball, and-then driving said ball,-which is much harder than the aluminum, into this opening to displace the metal around said opening to enlarge the opening and at'the same time insurea' very solid fit of the ball in the pocket. Ball 28 is normally disposed toone side of, i. e. below or above, ball 30; as illustrated in Figure 2, and upon pivoting of the last members relative to each other, ball 28 rolls over ball 30 and is thereby shifted in pocket 25against the action of spring 27, the constructionthus pro: viding a cam action whereby the two balls and the spring serve to prevent pivoting of the'last members to any position except the extremes of their movement in either direction. The balls 28 and 30, which take up the greatest portion of the strain and wear involved in the operation of pivoting the last members, are formed of hard metal, as steel, to minimize wear thereof.

- The last, while made of comparatively soft metaL-is' thus provided, *by-the casting. of the joint faces thereof against a' chill, with hardened surfaces atthe points at which friction and wear occur,- in addition to the advantages of manufacture and precision shaping of joint and last contour which result from the use of a chill. The hard metal sleeve 21 permits a knuckle to be used on the toe as well as the heel member to form a joint, the sleeve withstanding the friction and pressure resulting from pivoting of the last parts,

which would not be successfully withstood by the aluminum knuckle without the use of such sleeve. The particular cam joint effected by the balls and .of' said last membersf'; L

spring is simple to manufacture, effective for its purpose, and also takes up wear at points where the aluminum would not withstand such wear. J

The invention havingbeen set forth, what is claimed as new and useful is: a

1. An aluminum shoe last comprising a toe member, and heel member, means for pivotally interconnecting said members knuckle formed integrally with one of said mem- [b913, a hard metal sleeve carried by said knuckle',

including a a a pin carried by-the other member and journalled V in said sleeve, a spring pressed hard metal ball carried by said last namedmember, and a' hard,

metal ball partially imbedded in said knuckle, said last named ball being positioned centrally of the path of movement of said spring. pressed ball.

2, An aluminum'shoe last comprising a toe to partially project therefrom, said spring'pressed' ball passing over said knuckle carried ball inthe pivoting of said last member's. I r

3. A cast aluminumshoe last comprising atoe member, a heel member, -means for pivotally interconnectin'g' said m'e'mbers including a. knuckle formed integrally withone' of said members, a

cam projection carried by said knuckle, andspfing pressed means carriedby the other'member and cooperating withsaid cam, said membershaving chill cast'cooperating surfaces including chill'cast knuckle surfaces providing finished sli'ghtlyl;

hardened joint faces therefor. g 4. An aluminum shoe. last comprising. "a toe member, a heel member, means forpivotally terconnecting said members including aknuckle formed" integrally with one of'fsaid membersj the' other member having a recess therein of. a shape and size substantially; complementary to and re ceivingsaidknuckle, a pin extending through'said last named member and through said-1 knuckle, said last named member having a pocket formed therein, and a 'spring'pressed ball disposed in'said pocket to. frictionally bear on saidknilokleif 'j' V 5. A shoe last comprising a toe member, ah'el member, means forpivotally interconnecting said member 'including a knuckle carried by one-'0! said .members, said 'knuckle having an opening formed therein, a member 'fixedly lodgedingsaid opening and having a rounded portion partially projecting from said knuckle, and- 'a*sprin'g pressed member carried by the other. last-meme:

ber'and normally bearing against saidlast named member and passing over the same in the pivoting 6. A shoe last comprising a toe membena heel member, means for pivotally interconnecting'said m'embersincluding a knuckle integral with one member, the, other member 'having" a recess formed therein of a size and shape substantially tral recess, a pair of spaced knuckle's formejd integrally with said member and' aligndwitli said recess, a toe member having a joint 'face said recesses, said last named knuckle having av sleeve formed of hard metal extending therethrough, and a pin carried by the knuckles of said heel member and journaled in said sleeve.

8. A shoe last comprising a toe member and a heel member, one of said members having a joint face provided with a transverse recess, a knuckle formed integrally with said member and projecting therefrom intermediate the ends of said recess, the other member having a joint face provided with a recess for the reception of the knuckle of said first member, a pair of knuckles formed integrally with said last named member on opposite sides of said recess and disposed in the recess of said first member, and a pin pivotally interconnecting said knuckles the knuckles and recesses of said members being of substantially complementary shape and size to closely interfit.

9. A cast aluminum shoe last comprising a toe member and a heel member, one of said members having a chill cast hardened, surface including a transverse recess, a knuckle having chill cast hardened surfaces formed integrally with said member and projecting therefrom in axial alignment with and intermediate the ends of saidrecess, the other member having a chill cast hardened surface including a recess for the reception of the knuckle of said first member, a pair of knuckles having chilled cast hardened surfaces formed integrally with said last named member on opposite sides of said recess and means for pivotally interconnecting said members with said hard surfaced knuckles and recesses in interfitting relation.

10. A shoe last comprising a toe member, a

'heel member, said members being formed of an aluminum alloy, and means for pivotally interconnecting said members including a knuckle formed integrally with one member, a harder metal sleeve fixed in said knuckle by the shrinkage of the metal of said knuckle thereon, and a pin carried by the other member and journaled in said sleeve.

11. A cast aluminum shoe last comprising a to member and a heel member, each of said members having a chill cast portion providing a finished hardened joint face including at least one axially aligned knuckle and recess and a surface defining the adjacent ends of said knuckle and recess, and means for pivotally interconnecting said members with said hardened joint surfaces in cooperating interfitting relation.

12. A cast aluminum shoe last comprising a hollow toe member and a hollow heel member, each of said members having a chill cast portion providing a finished hardened joint face including concave and convex' surfaces, the remaining portions of said members having machine finished surfaces, and' means for pivotally inter-- connecting said members with said hardened joint surfaces in cooperating interfitting relation.

13. A cast aluminum shoe last comprising a hollow toe member, a hollow heel member, said members having cooperating curved joint forming portions adapted to interfit. said members having cooperating chill cast hardened surfaces forming joint faces including the faces of said curved joint forming portions, and means for pivotally interconnecting said members.

GEORGE c. CLARK. 

